Page 63 of Sirens
“Hundred and six!” Myrtle insisted. “I’m back on carbs, and Gabe’s been pumping iron with me.”
“Shut your mouth, Myrtle!” Mayor Stewart ordered her.
“You first!” And damned if the crepey-skinned, bird-boned biddy didn’t wrench out of Trent’s gentle grip, drop to gather a handful of her product, and hurl it right into the mayor’s face with the precision of post-roids A-Rod.
“This stopsnow,” Trent growled.
For a moment, everyone (finally) hesitated, having caught the glint in his eye his father had once called his “fuck around and found out” look.
“Myrtle, drop those gloves to the pavement.”
She complied.
“I’m sorry, but I’m placing you under arrest, for assault, but I won’t cuff you unless I see you reach for that pile again, you hear me?”
When he expected her to be chastened, she turned around and secured her own wrists behind her back. “I can’t be trusted around these ass-waffles. If Vee weren’t with your lover at thePalace, she’d be here putting every single one of you toshame. To fucking shame!”
Reaching for his cuffs, Trent warmed them with his fingers before securing them loosely on her tiny wrists. “You have?—”
“I know, I know… I have the right to remain silent, anything I say can and will be, blah blah blah… I’ve been getting arrested at protests since before you were born, kid.”
After Mirandizing her properly, Trent allowed his crew to disperse the rest of the passionate protesters as he buckled the pungent lady into his back seat.
Ugh. He would never get the smell out, unless he could?—
A thought hit him upside the head with all the force of the flat side of Myrtle’s shovel.
“Wait just a second… Did you say that Maggie and Vee were at the Palace Hotel?” he asked his rearview mirror.
The little white lady turned impossibly paler, her eyes shifting in a way that told him her next words were an absolute lie.
“Nope? I said… Erm… Alice’s… My pal, Alice. She wanted to meet Maggie, so Vee took her over there. She’ll come and bail me out before I can squat and cough, and we’ll go have victory drinks at Sirens. Maggie isn’t working, so the drinks will be better.”
Trent’s temper spiked so incredibly hot he bit down on his lips so as not to say something the old woman didn’t deserve.
She was the woman betraying him at the moment.
Goddamn.
The morning had been so perfect. Waking to Maggie’s warm body beside him. Sinking into her as he pulled her to his chest. Burying his face into the fragrance of her hair.
Had she been planning to lie to him all day?
He had a perp in his back seat. His day crew at the crossroads. His boss had the day off.
And somehow…he couldn’t bring himself to reach for his radio and send the town police to catch her in the act.
She’d be arrested for trespassing, and this time, Mayor Stewart wouldn’t hesitate to throw the book at her.
He should have listened to Maggie in the first place when she asked if he’d stay with her.
And tied her to the fucking bed.
ELEVEN
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SETTING A DRINK ON FIRE BEFORE SERVING. USUALLY SEEN IN SHOTS
